Level 7
Level 7 is the seventh and final level of The Simpsons: Hit & Run. It takes place on October 31, with the player reprising their role as Homer. Level 7 marks the largest change in map design the game sees; Springfield has become infested with zombies, its water supply has been completely replaced with Buzz Cola, and the aliens have left their mark on the town. Plot Level 7 takes place on October 31, on Halloween night. With aliens invading Springfield and Buzz Cola in the water supply, bringing the dead from their graves, the level is a breeding ground for spookiness. Homer must stop the aliens from destroying the human race. He is informed of nuclear waste, the aliens' weakness, and must deliver as much of it as possible to the UFO before it's too late for humanity. Appearance Level 7 is set at Evergreen Terrace once again and reuses the same map that Level 1 and Level 4 use; however, while Level 1 can be seen as the "stock" map and Level 4 can be seen as an extension, Level 7 is more of a restricted version of Level 1 and has several changes to it than the previous two levels: The 939 district of Springfield has been closed off from the player at both the drawbridge by the school and the nuclear power plant because part of the drawbridge and the piers underneath it have been damaged, and the ground underneath is missing (it could have possibly sunk into the colafied water). As for the power plant, a large metal door shuts off the plant's interior and the entrance has a different appearance then it did previously, the 939 Area Code sign seen on the rich side is also missing, the First Church of Springfield has been destroyed, possibly due to the zombie invasion, the river separating the poor part of Springfield from the suburbs has been changed from water to blood, with it making pig-like noises, fire hydrants now release a lime green substance when hit, and the tomacco field is now a pumpkin patch. The whole level is designed in a Halloween theme, as the newspaper that is sold on this level is dated October 31st. Notable changes to the environment include Krusty Burgers being changed to "Zombie Burgers", the Kwik-E-Mart becoming the "Spook-E-Mart", the Evergreen Terrace sign saying "Evergreen Terror", Flanders' House having a fence propped up in its' frontyard with a sign saying "No Pagans" because of the zombie apocalypse, the blue house with the shortcut near the Simpsons House reading graffiti inspirations saying "No T.V. make Homer go crazy", the school is decorated as a castle (it is now Springwart's School of Magicry), civilian cars being replaced with hearses, coffin carts, witches, and ghost ships, the grass becoming darker, jack-o-lanterns being in every corner of the level, ghosts hovering above the streets, the grill in the Simpsons' backyard being replaced with a jack-o-lantern and several homes having Halloween decorations out front. In addition, the trees have lost their leaves. Several ghosts, witches, and spiders can be found throughout Springfield, 2 houses away from the Zombie Burger (Krusty Burger but it was changed in level 7) by the cemetery, that pink house, on their garage has a big spider web on it, and there is a spider near the pet cemetery (the one you can also get into in Levels 1 and 4), and the statue above the Lard Lad Donuts building now lights up and moves its left arm and face around, even opening and closing its mouth in the process, making robotic elephant-like noises. One major, physical change to the level is the addition of alien spacecrafts. They are both located at opposite ends of the map and play different roles in the level. The spaceship at the school playground hovers over the baseball field and sucks up any trespassing vehicles. This plays a crucial role through the middle and later part of the level's main missions. The other spaceship is wedged into the power plant, exposing the interior via a break room of sorts. The player has access to the highest level of the plant, but not much of interest is found other than multiple Cola Crates and Vending Machines. The destroyed power plant is the focal point of the fourth mission. This being the only level in the game that does not have the map in a loop as the bridge that leads to the rich side of Springfield is blocked off as well as the door to the power plant being shut, making those areas of the map in this level inhabitable. While is plays a part in the game during the last few missions in the game going to point a, the power plant to point b, the school it was revealed that the area was cut out of the map was due to time restraints and production cost. This is evident with unused tracks that play if one glitches the game to access the undeveloped area where funeral music can be heard where the Stonecutters lounge would have been as well as a track called 'Celebration' which most likely would of played in Burns' mansion. The last notable change is the opening of the graveyard. In Levels 1 and 4, the player would have to drive around the gated portion of the graveyard, with the best shortcuts sending the player into either the Krusty Burger by the bridge of into a swath of pedestrians and vehicles. In Level 7, the gates are opened, due to the zombie apocalypse, and provide a valuable shortcut that every mission in the level makes use of. The said graveyard also has a river underneath the gap that allows for a platforming section on foot. The graveyard is the Springfield cemetery. The level is also unique for its sounds and music (which were changed to fit in with the Halloween theme). Because of this, a lot of tracks heard in Levels 1 and 4 will be different in Level 7, some of these examples being the Kwik-E-Mart, which plays an eerie sounding tune as opposed to the arcade sounding music in the previous Suburb levels. The cows in the barn near the Tomacco field have different mooing sounds which sound more evil than they did in Levels 1 and 4, and the level's opening music is played by a pipe organ instead of playing the first few notes of the Simpsons opening theme. Also, if the player goes into the playgrounds near the Simpsons House and at the school, they will hear the voices of various kids (Bart, Lisa, Milhouse, Ralph, Nelson, the kids from Levels 1-6) and Agnes Skinner. Arachnophobics, there are six spiders throughout this level. Where they are found are as follows: # On the tree at the first house after the Krusty Burger at the cemetery. # On the tree just across from the Level 1 and 4 cemetery entrance. # On the retirement castle. # On the side of the apartment where Gil is. # On the right side of the school as displayed from the front. When you go get the wasp camera on that side of the school, keep the camera pointed towards the grocery store. When gathering the coins, you can zoom in with the L button. # On the tree in the school playground. Try to keep the camera close to Homer with the yellow C stick and have it facing the baseball field the whole time when you go get the wasp camera on the bus (try to make the wasp camera go to Homer's left) and the collector card on the slide. You can make sure you don't end up going down the slide when getting the card and the two last coins. Music The music for Level 7 uses a Halloween-themed orchestral track that makes use of a theremin, an electronic instrument that uses electric signals concluded from the distance of the user's hands from its antennae. The theme itself is a Halloween remix of the theme used for Level 1 and 4: The following are sound cues that play while the player is on foot: Missions # Rigor Motors # Long Black Probes # Pocket Protector # There's Something About Monty # Alien "Auto"topsy Part I # Alien "Auto"topsy Part II # Alien "Auto"topsy Part III * Bonus: Flaming Tires Vehicles * 70's Sports Car (Starting vehicle) * Zombie Car (Purchase from a zombie for 500 coins; must be used in Long Black Probes) * Mr. Burns' Limo (Bonus Mission) * Open Wheel Race Car (Street Race prize) * Hearse (Purchase from Gil for 750 coins) * Hover Bike (Purchase from Gil for 1000 coins) Wasp Cameras Main Article: Wasp Cameras#Level 7 Gags Main Article: Gags#Level 7 # The TV inside the Simpsons' House. # The swings in the Simpsons' backyard. # Talking tiki in the Simpsons' backyard. # The Krusty table lamp in Bart's bedroom. # The clown bed in Bart's bedroom. # Door of the bomb shelter in the Flanders' backyard. # The swings in the playground near the Simpsons' House. # Radioactive gas tank in the power plant parking lot. # Frostillicus in the Kwik-E-Mart. # Silent alarm behind Apu in the Kwik-E-Mart. # ATM in the Kwik-E-Mart. # Larry the Looter arcade in the Kwik-E-Mart. # Squishee machine at the Kwik-E-Mart. # Fire extinguisher inside the school. # Fire alarm inside the school. Cards Soul Donut.jpg|Soul Donut Evil Krusty Doll.jpg|Evil Krusty Doll Human Cookbook .jpg|Human Cookbook Time Travel Toaster.jpg|Time Travel Toaster Hell Toupee.jpg|Hell Toupee Monkey's Paw.jpg|Monkey's Paw Smarch Calendar.jpg|Smarch Calender Trivia * This is the only level of the game where Apu has no role in the story line, and therefore only in this level he drives his Longhorn when accessed via phone booth. ** This is also the only level where Bart does not make an appearance (if counting his appearance in the tutorial and in the street races for Level 1 and excluding his appearance in the final cutscene), because of this, he drives both his Honor Roller and Ferrini when they are accessed via phone booth. **This is also the only level that the Zombie Car does not have a zombie behind the wheel. * When the player talks to the zombie running the checkpoint race, Homer says to the zombie "...let's do this! And get back to trying to kill each other." The only other mention of zombies attacking humans is when Kent Brockman is heard having his brain eaten on TV. Despite this, the zombies throughout the level actually behave as normal pedestrians, even talking to fellow zombies, and do not treat the humans walking around the level unusually at all. * As shown in many prerelease material of the game, the level had received many dramatic changes to it during development. This can even be notified in the final cutscene of the game around the area of the school: ** The glass panel to the northeast of the school has an entirely different insignia than the one in the game; It features orange wording alongside Krusty's face. ** The school's original colors (brown and purple) can be faintly seen. ** The playground area in the sandpit is missing. ** The broken-down school bus inside the sandpit is missing, since it wasn't supposed to be there originally. ** The colour of the houses surrounding the prison are blue instead of pink while the houses near Willie's shack appear to be a lighter orange (with one being lavender). ** The basketball pitch is missing and a smooth green hill with a grey path has took its place. * The Springwart's School of Magicry could be a reference to Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry from the Harry Potter series. * The level has several unused music files, some of which can be heard when exiting the level boundaries. For example: ** If the player exits the game's boundaries at the nuclear power plant, they will hear the unused Level 7 version of the Stonecutters Tunnel theme if the player stands in the spot where the tunnel was previously in Levels 1 and 4. ** Another example is around where Mr. Burns' Mansion would be: the player will hear Halloween-themed celebration music. ** A third example is in the files of the game. There is a Halloween theme that was meant to play in the rooftop garden of the Kwik-E-Mart replacing the music heard on the rooftop in Levels 1 and 4, but it does not play in the final game for unknown reasons. * If the player exits the game's boundaries at the power plant, the sounds that can be heard in the plant's various rooms in Levels 1 and 4 can also be heard here. * There are folders in the game's files that include Level 8 and 9. However, there is no information in them. Some players have speculated that the game was meant to include a level with all three maps combined (Suburbs, Downtown, and Squidport), but was cut because of the file size. * At one point during development, the rich side of the map and the entirety of the power plant were both meant to be accessible. There are also several hints in the level itself which prove this (e.g. the tracks that play at the Stonecutters Tunnel and Mr. Burns' Manor). According to former Radical employee "Noviwan" on the Donut Team forum, the map was cut in half to make workload for environment artists easier. * On the GameCube version, the guitar midway heard in the level's music sounded more inaudible then it did in the final's level music, this issue was later fixed: Gallery 70's Sports Car.png|The 70's Sports Car, the stock vehicle for Level 7 File:RC Buggy - Roofie.png|The R/C Buggy, the bonus vehicle for Level 7 Zombie Car.png|The Zombie Car, the character-bought vehicle for Level 7 Mr. Burns' Limo.png|Mr. Burns' Limo, the bonus vehicle for Level 7 Open Wheel Race Car.png|The Open Wheel Race Car, the race-rewarded vehicle for Level 7 Hover Bike.png|The Hover Bike, one of two vehicles bought from Gil for Level 7 Hearse.png|The Hearse, one of two vehicles bought from Gil for Level 7 Nuclear Waste-1.png|Nuclear Waste, a core part of the plot of Level 7 Nuclear Plant-Closed.png|The power plant end of the map, closed off from the player File:Graveyard - Open.png|The opened cemetery gates (with and without the sign) Draw Bridge.png|The draw bridge end of the map, closed off from the player Playground Spacecraft.png|The alien spacecraft hovering over the playground Level 7 - Probed.png|The unmodelled inside of the spacecraft hovering over the playground Power Plant-Burned.png|Mr. Burns' office at the top of the power plant Nuclear Plant-Power Down-3.png|The interior of the destroyed power plant Nuclear Plant-Power Down.png|The spacecraft wedged inside the power plant Nuclear Plant-Power Down-2.png|Beams that act as stairs ascending the power plant Lard Lad Donut-Haunted.png|Lard Lad Donuts in a Halloween theme Spook-E-Mart.png|The Spook-E-Mart, the Halloween version of the Kwik-E-Mart The Simpsons Hit & Run 1_3_2018 6_22_51 PM.png|The mountains as they look in Level 7 TheSimpsonsHitandRunLevel7Map.gif|The map for Level 7 Category:The Simpsons: Hit & Run Category:Level Pages